Madison News

Janesville woman accused of making prank 911 calls

A Janesville woman was in court Wednesday accused of making 39 false 911 calls. Police say the majority of the calls came in Tuesday evening and point to Anna Farmer, 44.

Police say Farmer would hang up without saying where she was, but because she called from a cell phone, the Rock Co. 911 Center was able to pinpoint where the calls were coming from--the apartment Farmer lives in.

"One officer noticed that this one person seemed to show up at everyone of the calls," Deputy Chief Dan Davis said.

Davis doesn't know exactly how many of the 39 calls officers responded to, but he says even one is burdensome.

"We only have a certain number of resources that are able to provide services to our 63,000 residents," Davis said. "And the more resources that are being expended toward unnecessary things, or taking away opportunities for police services to be provided to citizens who actually need police services."

"Yeah 39 is a lot, but added to that, I think there were some kids that are calling right around now," said Kathy Sukus, the 911 Center's communications director.

Sukus says the lines were flooded with an additional 100 prank calls on Tuesday from young kids. Call takers can't tell who's on the other line, until they pick up.

"They have to screen them quickly, because if another call is ringing, it might be a real emergency that they have to pick up," Sukus said.

Fortunately, such extreme cases are few and far between, and police are often able to track down the people behind them.

"Our officers have come up with some creative ways to get to the bottom of a lot of them," Davis said. "So we're thankful when that happens and prosecutors have worked cooperatively with us and send a message when that happens that this isn't going to be tolerated."

Janesville police are still investigating the 100 other prank calls that came in this week.